Three Tenets of Essentialism – 200 words projects

Here is this week’s 200 words project:

“I choose to,” “Only a few things really matter,” and “I can do anything but not everything.”

– Greg McKeown in Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

The first tenet – “I can do anything but not everything”

– The idea of confidence in our own abilities, to do anything that we really want to do and set our mind to. At the same time acknowledging and embracing the limits of being human, the limits of having just 24hrs in a day, and also acknowledging the all-pervasiveness of our greed, our tendency to “do just one more thing&rdquol, to “ldquo; want just a a little more”

The second tenet – “Only a few things matter”

– The idea of knowing that though we can run around in a thousand different directions, if we want to get to one place, we need to use those thousand steps to head in the direction we want. Tis is recognizing that, ultimately, doing something that doesn’t matter to us is just a waste of our time and energy. And what matters to us may not be what matters to someone else. This is the idea of recognizing this, and following our own beat towards what matters to us.

The third tenet – “I choose to”

– When we realize that only a few things matter, and we decide to give up on others, it is a choice that we are making. It is not a lack of ability or scarcity or time. And once this choice is made, we empower ourselves, give ourselves permission to really do what matters to us the most.

These three tenets of Essentialism is a great process for the over-achievers, the super curious, the uber-doers who want to do more and are frustrated in the process due to lack of time etc. This also seems to be the real process for all those who really achieved something – the greats, the Einsteins and Benjamin Franklins and Thoreau’s who are looked up to and who have contributed something great.

So, why not try it?

About the 200 Words Project

Once every week, on Monday morning, I will post my ‘200 Words Project’ post where I will ruminate on some idea which caught my interest in the current book I’m reading, or maybe (sometimes) from a blog post or podcast – in 200 words or more, never less!